Promise
by Daniel Rigger
Summary: In a Post-Apocalyptic World where Britain is ruled by Dark Forces, Hermione comes to the realization that her hiding place wasn't safe anymore and she had to leave, soon. She decides to flee to another country, but not before remembering the promise she had made to Harry, and not before she asks herself the question that had been on her mind for some time: How did she end up there?


**A/N: Hello everyone. This is my first fan fiction posted over here. I had this idea for quite some time now, but I failed to put it on paper. I toyed with it a lot, and decided to go ahead and do it. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it and drop some reviews for me. I'm willing to take suggestions, if anyone has any. Enjoy, and please, review!**

Hermione opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds; at the dust falling down underneath the heavy footsteps that kept traveling all around the ruins of the house that used to be up there.

Her eyes widened in shock at the sudden realization that someone was up there, probably looking for her. She quickly jumped on her feet, grabbing her wand and two framed pictures that were on the nightstand next to her bed, and quickly went into hiding underneath the stairs that led out of the basement.

She slowly crawled into the darkest corner, where she sat down with her back against the wall, hugging her knees and doing her best in staying calm. The footsteps kept traveling around, and Hermione followed the falling dust that gave away their position. She followed them while they still moved from one place to another, until they finally stopped directly above her, where the door that led down there was. She looked up, the dust falling on her face and started doing a silent prayer that whoever was up there wouldn't find the wards that she put there in order to hide the door.

She looked back down, her eyes closed shut, and buried her face between her knees, struggling to keep her tears away as the images of people she loved, and disappointed, in some cases, passed through her mind. She wanted to let it out and start crying, but she knew too well that if she did that it might be as well the last thing she ever does.

The seconds passed like hours, and with every second that passed, she was panicking more and more, thinking that they were onto her and they were currently planning how to get down here.

Worst case scenarios passed through her mind until the sound of the footsteps resumed, slowly walking away from the door. She visibly relaxed at that and waited for the apparition sound to follow. As it did, she let everything out. A few minutes, she crawled out from underneath the stairs, the tears still making their way down her cheek, and sat down on the edge of the bed.

She looked down at her hands, both shaking madly, and thanked god that she didn't have to use her wand because she would've been unable to aim in this condition. Looking at her other hand, where she help the two pictures, a weak smile spread across her face as she looked at the pictures with the two most important people in her life, apart from her parents.

One of the pictures was with herself and a young boy that had raven hair, a lightning shaped scar on his forehead, the reason why he was one of the most famous wizards ever to live, and emerald green eyes, "Just like my mother", as he loved to say. They were sitting under a tree, next to a beautiful lake, with him having his arm around her.

The other picture was again, with Hermione, but this time it wasn't the same boy. It was a red haired one, who was visibly taller than Hermione, compared to the other one who was just a tad taller than her. He was wearing a dark suit and was holding hands with Hermione, who was wearing a beautiful red dress. Behind them, on a wall, there was a large banner that read "Hogwarts Graduation Party". The picture was moving, starting with them simply holding hands, and ending with them kissing passionately.

She got up from the bed and started pacing around the room, stressed, trying to come up with a solution to all her current problems. She started weighing her options because she knew too well that staying there wasn't an option anymore.

It had gotten very dangerous to stay there since they started checking more than a couple times a week, compared to once every two or three months like they used to do it before. She knew too well that they checked this place more often because they had their suspicions about it, and that the something were looking for was somewhere around there. And it was… in Hermione's possession nonetheless.

After she continued pacing around the room for a few minutes, thinking, she ended up from where she left: sitting on the edge of the bed, looking around the small and old basement in which she loved for the past… she couldn't even tell for how long she had been living there. She couldn't say whether it was day or night outside, or what date they were on because, since she hid herself in here, all her connections to reality were abruptly cut.

Even though she never left the room, she managed to survive because there was a man working at a store in the town nearby who knew the purpose of her hiding since they – they being herself, Ron and Harry – first came here, and kept bringing her some food every now and then.

He always checked the surroundings before, after which he put the food where she had instructed him, in front of the door that led down to the basement, and which was invisible because of the wards she had set up, after which he had to knock on the floor a few times to identify himself. He would leave afterwards, and Hermione would quickly open the door, grab the things he had left, and go back inside.

The problem was that for the past few days, there had been no sign from the man, thing that led Hermione into thinking that he had been caught and probably killed by them.

The fact that she was currently starving wasn't enough. The conditions she lived in weren't any better. The walls of the basement had cracks in it, and because of the rainy season approaching, there was a big chance that they could collide inside any moment. In the middle of the room, there was an extendable sofa on which Hermione slept on since she came here, and which was as hard as a rock. She had no light or heat, and she couldn't use any spells because she would be tracked down. The only thing that worked in the entire room was the fridge, which Ron charmed to work without electricity, but that didn't come to any use right now since Hermione didn't have a thing to keep inside it.

She took a deep breath, knowing well that she had to do what she had come up with earlier. After the thinking she did, she decided that her best option was to try and escape from England, flee in another country. That was the only part of the plan she had figured out right now, but it was everything that mattered to her. Everywhere else was better than England right now.

She lay down on the bed, looking once more at the ceiling, asked herself what she asked herself every time before falling asleep: How did she end up here!?

The story of how she ended up here was a very long one, and, sadly, a tragic one, too. The nightmares of what had happened to her and her beloved ones in the past few years, still haunted her, causing her to wake up in the middle of the night, all covered in sweat, breathing heavily, shocked, and start crying until the sun would rise.

She would give anything to see them again, hug them, kiss them, and tell how much she loved them and how much she missed them. But everything was just a dream that she knew very well would never happen.

She wondered how she had managed to survive so long without the two of them: the ones that were such a big part of her life that it actually made her think that living without them wasn't an option anymore. The years behind her had been very hard ones, but she held on, always remembering the one promise she had made, but never kept.

She got up on her feet, deciding that the last thing she wanted to do was to keep that promise she had made years earlier. She knew that it was going to be the last thing she was going to do, but she didn't care at all. She just wanted to get over with it and get away from everything. From underneath the bed she removed a locked box, which she unlocked and removed a small bag from it, which she put into her pocket. She grabbed her wand from the desk, along with the two pictures, and slowly started ascending the stairs that led to the outside world. She had a firm grip on her wand, ready for anything.

She grabbed the door knob and rotated it, pushing the door open. She slowly came outside, wand ready. She shielded her eyes from the bright sun and waited a few moments for them to adjust. She made a step forward and looked around the ruins of the house for a few moments.

She exited the ruins of the house, going out on the street, and looked around. The town was destroyed, and there were even a few bodies lying on the street. She shook her head and looked around. All towns she had known to be near this one were in flames, the smoke rising to the sky in the distance.

She went to the garden behind the ruins of the house, where there were four tombstones. She went ahead and sat down on one knee in front of the two tombstones that read "Ronald Bilius Weasley" and "Harry James Potter". Putting one hand on each grave, she closed her eyes and murmured a few unintelligible things.

She then got up on her feet, wiping away the tears that came to her eyes, and apparated away, the sound echoing through the deserted town. From now, Hermione was on the run.

**A/N: So, what do you think? Sadly, I can't hear you nor read your mind, so if you would like to tell me what you think in the box just underneath this. Thanks.**

**P.S The story won't continue directly from here. We'll go back to the Hogwarts Graduation Party and tell the story of how Hermione ended up where she was. Afterwards, we continue with it normally. Won't take long, I promise.**


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